CREATE

CARIBBEAN EXPORT DEVELOPMENT AGENCY - CREATE 01CREATIVEDESIGN -DESIGNINGTHEPRODUCTOFTHEFUTURE

Lesley-Ann Noel is a lecturer in Product Design and has done work in product design, export product development and entrepreneurship training as a consultant for organisations such as the UWI Steel Pan Research Laboratory, the Export Promotion Council of Kenya, The Caribbean Export Development Agency, the Caribbean Development Bank and the Uganda Women Entrepreneurs Association Ltd. Ms. Noel is the Coordinator of the Visual Arts Unit and joined the DCFA (then CAC) in 1999 as a part-time lecturer in Design. She became full-time faculty in 2008. She has exhibited work at design exhibitions and design trade shows in the United States, Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica, Brazil, Germany and France. Her areas of interest include ‘art and design in primary education’, ‘sustainable product development’ and ‘design and product strategy for small and micro-entrepreneurs’. LESLEY-ANN NOEL COORDINATOR AND LECTURER, VISUAL ARTS PROGRAMME, UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES CONTRIBUTOR INDUSTRY INSIGHT – CREATIVE DESIGN

there may exist a romanticized notion of what we do in the Caribbean, anticipating work with lots of images of palm trees. The fact that governmental and regional agencies tend to favour international design consultants over building local talent does not improve our counterparts’ perception of us. I believe it is important for us to build local demand, and to strengthen our expertise locally, perhaps before penetrating the international market or at least at the same time. It is greatly important for us to increase our consumption of locally/regionally-designed products and design services in order to make our industry better equipped to compete internationally. Some designers or product makers may be able to leap frog the local market and go straight to the international market, but I think most need to develop a local or regional demand for their goods and services. It may be possible to find nuances of Caribbean culture in Caribbean design through themes, materials, colour schemes, the way we deal with clients etc. However, with a more sophisticated and therefore more demanding local audience, and with the impact of globalization, some of these nuances may be less evident in our products and services. This is not a negative thing it is merely the reality of the situation. There may be a negative nuance of our culture that impacts our design and creative industries, our own neo-

Images from Design Caribbean 2011 held in the Dominican Republic

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